Saturday, August 25, 2012

Stephen Covey groups his leadership habits into two groups: independence & interdependence. We all begin life as dependents. As we grow into our teen years, we begin to establish our independence (learning to drive, dating, renting an apartment, etc). And then hopefully, if all goes well, we become more interdependent (working in teams, starting a family, participating in the community).

Mark Messier & Hart Trophy

Covey believes the first three, as a set, are a prerequisite for the next three, or the independence stage, like in life itself, is the foundation for interdependence. It is through this natural process that leaders such as Mark Messier also start their way down the road of becoming captains, coaches or managers.

But what sets the elite leaders apart is something Covey discusses in the chapter on Habit #2, Begin with the End in Mind. And that is the mission writing process. Not everyone does this in a formal way. But the best leaders do typically have a vision or goal that that over time becomes crystalized in their minds like written mission.

Covey's mission statement recommendation though, goes beyond just goals. He believes these goals need to be guided by one's conscience in order for those goals to have an optimal effective on one's circle of influence. Thus, our conscience will reveal in our mission statement, our ethic or moral code for our personal life or professional life -- optimally both.

In hockey, the goal is obviously winning the Stanley Cup. Many kids dream of one day hoisting the big silver mug over their heads as well. Perhaps Messier was one of those children as well, but even he had no idea of the level of success he would achieve:

"Growing up, watching Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night with my family, I never dreamed I would hoist the Stanley Cup above my head six times."

So what set Messier apart allowing him achieve unprecedented success in the modern era. Lets see what else he had to say:

"Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to have played with and for some of the game’s greatest players and coaches. Because of this, I have also been able to achieve many individual accomplishments. But for me, it is and has always been about the team, the journey and the final collective achievement of one singular goal: the Stanley Cup."

Note that he demonstrates gratitude/humility by acknowledging his teammates and coaches. He talks about the journey in addition to the goal. He talks about the Stanley Cup as a collective goal or vision.

These were elements of his unwritten mission: an authentic vision that included both the goal (cup) and principles (team work, hard work and gratitude) that guided him throughout his professional journey.

Covey's Habit #1, being proactive, is essentially the opposite of being reactive. It's important because top performance requires athletes to ignore a lot the nice things in life in order to focus on their sport. For example when others were going to the movies, Gretzky was skating in his backyard rink fostering his hockey sense as an 7 year old, sometimes all alone.

Another example is eating well in order for the nutrition to heal the body especially since hockey is such a physically punishing game. This is especially as the athlete gets older.

So the point is that before one simply reacts to stimuli without thinking, the ability to pause between stimulus and response needs to be developed. That pause though to be meaningful requires filling by something meaningful. So that the eventual decision or action is based on the authentic vision (goals & principles).

That honed pause is quite powerful as it has the potential to create a machine out of the person. That person if pre-programmed with ethical principles then would then logically make ethical decision with the power to eventually propel him to new heights, but just as importantly, it could move others to better themselves, or just simply improve them on its own because of its ethical nature.

Thus, if that pause filled by principled thought, the result will be principled action! That's being proactive. What we sew is what we reap. Hence, optimal habit performance requires ethical vision.

Habit 3 is very much the same with regard to being more effective with a character exuding mission statement supporting it. Habit 3 is of course putting first things first. First things are those that intersection at the highest levels of urgency & importance. The important axis should be heavily influenced by what's in your vision. If the vision is a high character mission statement, then if first things are indeed done, many great deeds will be done around the world every day.

In Habit 4, Think win-win, this is the first habit that really puts a focus on other people in addition to oneself. If you are a credible person of impeccable moral character, people will trust you more naturally and you will both be able to get to win-win agreements more often. It's a no brainer.

With Habit 5, seek to understand first, before trying to be understood. Mutual understanding is much more easily achieved if their is mutual trust. So like win-win relationships, a person of high moral character will naturally be more trustworthy and have many more opportunities to participate in high quality relationships, which increase the chances of success, since more can be accomplished by groups than by individuals.

And Habit 6, Synergy is sort of the natural almost automatic result of high character enabled habits 4 & 5. Habit 7, renewal, well similar to habit 3, if a high character mission statement is at the core of a person's priority list, well just as good decisions will result, so to will good self development activity decisions.

It's that combination of goal & principles that will propel one to make the right decisions when the pressure to make the wrong decision are so great. When one avoids the pitfalls and imaginary shortcuts, longterm success is almost guaranteed.

Sunday, August 12, 2012

The Mark Messier Leadership Award was handed out in June by Messier to a player who has been in the news recently for other reasons. Shane Doan, unrestricted free agent is still deciding which NHL team he will sign with, a contract likely to be the last one for the 35 year old and longtime Phoenix Coyote captain. Upon receiving the award, Doan said about the honour:

"I am thrilled to receive the Mark Messier Leadership Award. Growing up in Alberta, I was a huge fan of Mark Messier and to receive this award from one of the greatest leaders to ever play in the NHL is a tremendous honor."

As Doan stated, Mark Messier is a recognized as an individual who could lead a team to new heights. Some of his key achievements include:

He is second on the all-time career lists for regular season points (1887), playoff points (295) and regular season games played (1756).

He won six Stanley Cups, five with the Oilers and one with the Rangers, and is the only player to captain two different professional teams to championships.

His playoff leadership while in New York, which ended a 54-year Stanley Cup drought in 1994, earned him the nickname "The Messiah".

He was also known, over the course of his career, as "The Moose" for his aggression and strength.

In 2007, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, in his first year of eligibility.

Mark Messier

When Messier started out in pro hockey, he had a lot of raw ability, like his blazing speed and incredible physical strength. The rest was a work in progress. Thus, Messier has been called the ultimate "coach's project." The coach (and GM) at the time was Glen Sather, who drafted the hometown boy in the second round in 1979.

What Sather acquired was an impressionable and caring young man who just happened to reside in a monster athelete's body. Under Sather's guidance Messier became focused on the end goal:

"I never was brought into the league thinking as far as, you know, statistics, things like that. We were really brought into the league in a team concept. Everything was focused around winning." ~ Mark Messier

Mark Messier also had terrific skills of observation. In Edmonton, Messier got to watch the greatest hockey player in the world, Wayne Gretzky, game in and game out, and learned to apply at least one characteristic from Gretzky's game to his own: accountability.

"I played with a lot of great players before. They're all the same. They take a lot of responsibility for their own play, put a lot of pressure on themselves to perform and to play well." ~ Mark Messier

Eventually, Messier was able to take all of what he learned and developed it into his own personal leadership code. Mark Messier's leadership principles are as follows:
1. Compete
2. Communicate
3. Motivate
4. Bond
5. Be a Team Player
6. Do What it Takes!
These principles obviously worked since Messier is recognized universally as one of the greatest leaders in all of sports.

With that in mind, I took a closer look at his principles and compared them to that of a renowned personal leadership author, namely the recently departed, Stephen Covey. In his best-selling 1989 book, 'The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', Mr. Covey revealed his timeless principles to personal success as follows:

Stephen Covey

Habit 1: Be Proactive
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind
Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit 4: Think Win-Win
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw
Habit 8: From Effectiveness to Greatness (revealed as a sequel to the original)

If we compare Messier's six principles to Covey's first six, it turns out they have much more in common then their shiny domes. What is revealed is an undeniable congruence in their principles/habits:

Habit 1: Be Proactive | 6. Do What it Takes!
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind | 3. Motivate
Habit 3: Put First Things First | 1. Compete
Habit 4: Think Win-Win | 5. Be a Team Player
Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood | 2. Communicate
Habit 6: Synergize | 4. Bond

Stephen Covey's order is related to the developmental stages that he also identifies in his Habits series, which are as follows:

Independence or Self-Mastery (Habits 1-3)

Interdependence (Habits 4-6)

Self Renewal (Habit 7)

Greatness or Leadership
(Habit 8)

So together, a Stanley Cup proven Leadership System for Hockey could be framed as follows:

Independence or Self-MasteryThe First Three Habits surround moving from dependence to independence (i.e., self mastery):Habit 1: Be Proactive (Do What it Takes!)
Take initiative in life by realizing that your decisions (and how they align with life's principles) are the primary determining factor for effectiveness in your life. Take responsibility for your choices and the consequences that follow.Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind (Motivate)
Self-discover and clarify your deeply important character values and life goals. Envision the ideal characteristics for each of your various roles and relationships in life. Create a mission statement.Habit 3: Put First Things First (Compete)
Prioritize, plan, and execute your week's tasks based on importance rather than urgency. Evaluate whether your efforts exemplify your desired character values, propel you toward goals, and enrich the roles and relationships that were elaborated in Habit 2.InterdependenceThe next three have to do with Interdependence (i.e., working with others):Habit 4: Think Win-Win (Be a Team Player)
Genuinely strive for mutually beneficial solutions or agreements in your relationships. Value and respect people by understanding a "win" for all is ultimately a better long-term resolution than if only one person in the situation had gotten his way.Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood (Communicate)
Use empathic listening to be genuinely influenced by a person, which compels them to reciprocate the listening and take an open mind to being influenced by you. This creates an atmosphere of caring, respect, and positive problem solving.Habit 6: Synergize (Bond)
Combine the strengths of people through positive teamwork, so as to achieve goals no one person could have done alone. Get the best performance out of a group of people through encouraging meaningful contribution, and modeling inspirational and supportive leadership.

Habits 7 & 8 I have yet to compare. But if you look closely at Mark Messier's career in it's entirety, including off-season activities, he demonstrates his own versions of these two as well:

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw - to continue getting better, Messier, as do all pros, practiced almost daily in addition to playing the game. He talked about the games and participated in drills to hone his technique.

Habit 8: From Effectiveness to Greatness - as a recognized leader, Messier is passing on his experience and knowledge to others in his Mark Messier's Leadership Camp; his Mark Messier Leadershp Award, and all of the community development projects (particularly those that helped the underprivileged and children in the cities he played in.

In the weeks to come, I will be taking a closer look at each habit/principle and showing them in action both in on- and off-ice examples.